Fox hunting in America

FOX HUNTING

IN

AMERICA

4llen Potts

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FRANK L. WILES

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OFF FOR THE HUNT

FOX HUNTING IN
AMERICA

BY

ALLEN POTTS

COPYRIGHT. 1911. BY ALLEN POTTS. RICHMOND, VA

Washington
the carnahan press

1912

TO
G. R. P.

M. F. H. OF CASTLE HILL HUNT

HAPPY CREEK FARM

ALBEMARLE CO., VA.

1911

THIS EDITION IS LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED
COPIES, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS

NO. 3

6^.

not considered

OX hunting in America, as well as in
Great Britain, had its beginning around
the year I 700. In England long be-
fore that time, and indeed as early as
161 I, the fox was hunted by the farmer
and the petty squire, but the pursuit was
really sport and was treated with
great contempt by the sportsmen of those days,
who held that stag hounds gave royal recreation and that
the chase of the hare came next in importance. In America,
however (and when I say America, I speak of the colonies
of Virginia and Maryland for those early days), the sport
of hunting any animal with hounds cannot very well have
taken place until the end of the seventeenth century (1690)
for the reason that the first settlements were upon the banks
of streams, and for many years thereafter there were no
fields over which hounds could run and, indeed, the set-
tlers possessed neither hounds nor horses, even if the coun-
try had been adapted to hunting.

The colony in Virginia, founded at Jamestown in 1 607.
was almost swept away by the great massacre in 1622, and
for a year thereafter the colonists lived within stockades.
never daring to wander beyond sight of a primitive fort.
There is no record that fox hounds existed in the colony at
that time and, indeed, the records of the Virginia Com-
pany from 1619 to 1624 contained no mention of foxes,
or hounds, or of huntmg.

In Maryland, where the first settlement was founded at
St. Mary's, near the present site of Annapolis, in 1634, the
same state of affairs existed, and it seems, therefore, hardly
probable that the statement made in Outing of October,
1897, by Mr. Hanson Hiss, in his very interesting article.
"The Beginning of Fox Hunting in America," to the effect
that in Queen Anne County the first fox hunt in America
took place in the year I 650, is correct. That fox hunting
in America had its beginning in the colonies of Virginia and
Maryland is undisputed, for the reason that the Quakers of

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Pennsylvania, the Dutch of New York, and the Puritans
of New England looked askance at the frivolities of this
wicked sport and, indeed, although the sentiment against
fox hunting in Pennsylvania was withdrawn shortly after
the middle of the eighteenth century, the Quakers of Long
Island practically forbade the sport in New York until the
period following the Revolutionary war, and in New Eng-
land there was no fox hunting until the conclusion of the
Civil war.

It is very true that in all the colonies settled at that time
gray foxes were plentiful, but except in Virginia, Mary-
land, the Carolinas, and the eastern portion of Pennsyl-
vania foxes were hunted for the bounty that was placed
upon their heads, and were hunted with guns, and not run
down with hounds. It is interesting to note that there is
a wide difference of opinion relative to the red fox in
America. The Century Dictionary declares that "the
common fox of North America is very similar to the red
fox of Europe, being probably not specifically distinct,
while almost every writer on sport declares there were no
red foxes in America until they were imported from abroad,
the gray fox being the only genus found in this country by
the settlers. There has for years been a legend to the
effect that red foxes were first brought to America from
England by the British officers stationed in New York, and
that the animals were turned loose on Long Island, escap-
ing to the mainland, however, during a hard winter, when
the Sound was frozen over, and coming South by way of
New Jersey. Another interesting story, told by a writer
in Volume I of the Turf Register, is that the red fox was
imported to America from Germany, and that not until
the year 1814 was any fox seen in Virginia near the James
River, except the native gray. The writer, whose letter is
dated Richmond, October 13, 1829, declares that this
first red fox was chased in Goochland for three years and
finally given up as a bad proposition, because it was im-
possible for the best hounds of the neighborhood to even

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run him to earth. The true story, however, of the impor-
tation of the red fox to America, is evidently the one told
by Mr. Hiss, and verified by Colonel Skinner, editor of
the Turf Register, who says that in the month of August
in the year 1 730, in the County of Talbot, eight prosperous
tobacco planters of Maryland discussed fox hunting over
huge bowls of mint julep and determined to bring over
English foxes in order to secure the same sport that many
of them had enjoyed in England. The commission was given
to the captain of the schooner ''Monaccas^,'' and on his
next trip from Liverpool he brought to Maryland eight pair
of red foxes, consigned to a Mr. Smith. The description
of the entertainment, which took place when the foxes were
liberated, is worthy of interest. A great ball was given
and all the gentry of the province were invited to be pres-
ent, while the country bumpkin also viewed the festivities
from a distance. The next day there were horse races
between the thoroughbreds from Virginia and Maryland,
after which the red gentry were released.

So it seems that Maryland was the home of the red fox
until the winter of 1 779, when the English fox crossed
over the frozen waters of the Chesapeake Bay and the
Potomac River into Virginia, and so made his way south,
displacing in a number of localities the native gray fox.
It is a peculiar coincidence that the importers of the red
fox into Maryland were residents of Talbot County, the
word "talbot" being a slang expression used in England
to signify a hound.

Harking back to the beginning of fox hunting, it is only
proper to say a word of fox hunting in general. The sport
seems to belong practically to the English-speaking race,
for while there are packs of hounds maintained in France
and in Italy, the hunts of these countries are of a theatrical
kind, while the sport in Great Britain and America is bred
in the bone of the people and has played an important part
in the affairs of these countries, the greatest statesmen, sol-
diers and jurists of England and America having been
ardent and earnest fox hunters.

Page seven

CHAPTER II.
In England.

Speaking first of the mother country, from which the
hounds of America were brought and from which the red
fox of America was imported, it seems there was no regular
pack of fox hounds maintained in England until about the
year 1 690, when Lord Arundel, of Wardour, swung his
pack from the hare to the fox. In a letter printed in The
Quarterly Review in 1 832, Lord Arundel, a descendant
of the noble sportsman of 1 690, writing to Mr. Apperley,
says: "A pack of fox hounds were kept by my ancestor,
Lord Arundel, between the year 1 690 and 1 700, as I
have memoranda to prove." This pack was hunted in
Wiltshire and Hampshire Counties, in England, and was
finally sold to Mr. Hugo Meynell, known as the father of
modern fox hunting.

Mr. Thomas Boothby is also a claimant for the honor
of having kept the first regular pack of fox hounds, and
it is known that he hunted in Leicestershire County before
1 700, but little is known of the style or extent of his
performances. His hunting horn still exists, and upon it
is the inscription: "With this horn he hunted the first
pack of fox hounds then in England, for fifty-five years."
The old gentleman was an out and out sportsman and very
religiously inclined, and in order to bring together the
church and the hunt he presented to his parish a chime
of bells tuned to resemble the sound of hounds in full cry.
To these two sportsmen, then. Lord Arundel and Mr.
Boothby, belongs the honor of introducing fox huntmg as
a real sport into England, although it was not until later
that the fox became the fashionable and aristocratic pursuit.

Long before the days of Lord Arundel the fox had been
hunted in England, but, as I have said before, only by
the farmer class and the petty squires whose purses could
not stand the strain of keeping buck hounds or of taking
part in the noble chase after the stag. These men of

Page nine

moderate means chased sometimes the hare and sometimes
the fox, and again the otter, taking their fun where they
found it and enjoying their sport none the less because it
was not considered fashionable.

In 1611, Jervase Markham, in his "Country Content-
ments," says: "The fox and the badger are less cunning
than any other animal pursued by the hound." But Min-
cheu, in 1599, had written: "Whosoeuer loues good wine
hunts the foxe once a yeere," showing that even at the
beginning of the seventeenth century the fox, although
held in low esteem, was hunted. As late as 1 683, Rich-
ard Blome, in his "Gentlemen's Recreation," declares that
the chase of the fox is not so full of diversity as that of
the hare.

Those who hunted the fox before 1 690 followed on
foot, and there is no record of any fox hunt upon which
men on horse back followed. A price was set upon a
fox's head and vulpicide was not recognized as an offence.
The solicitor general of Great Britain in 1641 declared
that, "Hares and deer are beasts of the chase, but foxes and
wolves are only beasts of prey."

Even after an impetus had been given the sport of fox
hunting by the Arundel and Boothby and Meynell packs,
it was not until the end of Queen Anne's reign that fox
hunting had become a recognized sport in England, and
for years the packs were maintained very much like those
in Virginia before the Civil War. It was the custom to
hunt at break of day, and frequently the sportsmen donned
their hunting clothes for dinner, sat at the table until near
daybreak and then mounted their horses and rode away to
the chase. The pack was scattered through the neighbor-
hood and was called together by the huntsman sounding
the horn from some high hill or going around and col-
lecting the various couples from the farmer attendants who
fed and cared for them.

A most interesting story is told of how fox hunting
changed in a single morning from a sport of second degree

Page ten

to the one of first importance. The fifth Duke of Beau-
fort in 1 762 was out stag hunting and, while passing with
his stag hounds through a wood jumped a fox, which
faced the open country and which the pack pursued with
such music and vigor that the Duke declared he would
never again hunt the stag, and thereup>on the Badminton
pack became fox hounds and have remained so to this day.

Another story is told of the Duke of Grafton, who
hunted foxes nearly thirty years before the Duke of Beau-
fort made the sport fashionable. The Duke of Grafton
on hunting mornings would go down from London at day-
break to his place at Croydon, and in so going was forced
to cross the Thames at Westmmster ferry. The delays of
the ferry annoyed his grace to such an extent that he had
a bill passed in I 736 to erect Westminster bridge, so
that he would not be retarded on his way to follow hounds.
To his grace of Grafton also belongs the distinction of
being the first sportsman to hunt the bagged fox, for in
order to always insure a day's run, he had a servant
carry a live fox in a hamper so that if hounds could not
find in covert they would at least discover a "bagman."

To the love of fox hunting must be attributed the Sat-
urday holiday of Parliament, for Sir Robert Walpole
brought this holiday about so that he might hunt the fox
at least one day a week.

It might be mentioned that at least two men in England
in those early days hunted for more than half a century —
Mr. Thomas Boothby for fifty years and Mr. John Ward,
the master of Pytchley, for fifty-seven years, and I will
add here that at least one Virginian has hunted as long —
Mr. Julius Octavus Thomas, of Four Square, in Isle of
Wight, Virginia, has kept hounds and hunted for fifty-
six years.

In England, and I might say in Ireland and Scotland
as well, the sport has grown to enormous proportions. It is
said that during the present year there are no less than five
hundred packs of hounds maintamed in the United King-

Page eleven

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Type of English foxhound

Another type of English foxhound

dom, and most of these packs are hunted regularly two or
three times a week and with great form and ceremony.
Hounds are raised as carefully as horses and their train-
ing is given as great attention. Foxes are protected to
such an extent than a man would as soon commit murder
as kill a fox. In a word, fox hunting is the greatest sport
in Great Britain today, and it is great because it has
received the attention and care and thought of the very
best and most intelligent people of Great Britain.

Although fox hunting in America can hark back almost
to the time of the beginning of the sport in England, yet
America cannot boast of any such progress as Great
Britain has achieved, and the reasons for this are so ap-
parent that it is hardly necessary to mention them. In
England there has been for generations a great leisure class
whose wealth permitted its members to indulge in all man-
ner of recreations and to give all of their time and atten-
tion to the pastime which attracted their fancy, while in
America the struggle for existence has been so great, the
fight for wealth has been so insistent, that Americans have
been forced to snatch a few hours here and there for play
between the times of more serious occupation. It is very
true that the planters of Virginia and Maryland were
wealthy and that they belonged to the leisure class, but
the country was vast and thinly settled, the servants were
negroes, and the country gentleman took his pleasures more
indolently than his cousins across the sea.

In addition, and probably more important than any of
the reasons given, is that Great Britain, despite the wars
in which she has been engaged, has fox hunted as regularly
as the season came around, and therefore there has been no
interruption in the sport and the hunts have grown in num-
ber and importance. The only check that fox hunting has
received has been the building up of the open country and
the appearance of wire where formerly there was only open
meadow or an occasional line of timber.

Page thirteen

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CHAPTER III.
In America.

Fox hunting in America should be divided into three dis-
tinct periods, each period, it is interesting to note, being
ended by war and each period marking a growing interest
in the sport. The first period dates from colonial days up
to the Revolutionary war in 1 775. During that period fox
hunting was engaged in only by the people of Virginia,
Maryland, eastern Pennsylvania, western New Jersey,
North and South Carolina and southeastern New York.
This is easily accounted for when one recalls that the sport
did not appeal to the Puritans of New England, nor to the
Dutch of New York, nor to the Quakers of Pennsylvania.
For the most part the sport was confined to Virginia and
Maryland, there being but little interest in fox hunting in
the Carolinas, where deer hunting was in vogue.

Around Philadelphia there was one known pack which
was maintained by the gentlemen of Philadelphia and the
farmers of New Jersey across the river, while in New York
there was but one pack, of which Mr. John Evers was
master. This pack was kept at Hempstead and was
brought over from England along with horses and servants
around 1 770. Colonel George Washington was one of
the subscribers and the British officers and the residents
of New York were the patrons of the sport. The war
of the Revolution put an end, however, to fox hunting
practically until the surrender of the British at Yorktown
in 1781, when there began the second period of the sport.

This period, beginning in 1781, lasted until the Civil
war in 1861, and during that time fox hunting engaged
the attention of many people in Virginia, Maryland, North
and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and of a
very few people in New York, Georgia and Florida. The
sport was still unknown in New England, and really had
its home in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In
New York there was but one pack maintained, known as
the Brooklyn Hunt Club, founded in 1781, the year of

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Lord Cornwallis' surrender, and of but short duration.
In Georgia and Florida the sport was carried on for the
most part by Virginians, who took their packs south,
notably the Henrys, who in this way introduced into
Georgia and Florida the famous Henry hound, named for
Patrick Henry.

In Kentucky a number of packs sprung up, among them
the well known July and Walker hounds, and in Ten-
nessee a similar state of sport prevailed. So it was that
Virginia and Maryland with Pennsylvania were the home
of fox hunting during this second period, and I shall later
give an account in some fashion of the nature of the sport.
The Civil war put an end to this period in 1861, and
there was no hunting practically in the United States until
after 1865, when packs that had been practically dispersed
were again assembled, hounds were imported from Eng-
land and the sport was put on a firmer basis than ever
before. The sport was continued in the States in which
hounds had been already run, and in addition packs were
organized in the District of Columbia, in Massachusetts, in
Ohio, New Hampshire, Vermont, Missouri, Illinois, and
over on the Pacific Coast in the States of Washington and
Oregon. The style of hunting largely changed to the
English method, many hounds and some horses were im-
ported, English hunt servants were brought over, and pink
coats for the first time made their picturesque appearance
in the hunting field.

This in brief is a statement of the three periods of the
sport of fox hunting in America, although it does not
include the sport in Canada, where as early as 1826 the
Montreal Hunt had been founded and the Toronto Hunt
in 1850. These two hunts, therefore, belong to the second
period, but the London Hunt of Canada, founded in 1885,
belongs to the third period.

Having thus shown how the various sections of the
country gradually took an interest in the sport, I return to
fox hunting in colonial days.

Page seventeen

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CHAPTER IV.

In Colonial Da^s.

The first mention of hounds in Virginia occurs in the
court records of Northampton County in 1 69 1 , mentioned
in Dr. Phihp Alexander Bruce's "Social Life of Virginia
in the Seventeenth Century." Mike Dixon, living in the
county of Northampton, was called before a magistrate
upon a complaint that he kept a pack of "dogs," and his
house being near the road, these "dogs" ran out and at-
tacked passersby, greatly to their terror and injury. Mike
Dixon appeared before the magistrate and plead that his
pack of "dogs" was necessary to the safety of the colonists
in that they destroyed "foxes, wolves and other varmint,"
and therefore it would be better to re-survey the road,
running it at a greater distance from his house, than for him
to destroy his pack. It seems that his honor, the justice,
agreed with Mike Dixon and that the road was moved
back so that the hounds might be undisturbed. If hounds
were held in such esteem in I 69 1 , it is only fair to sup-
pose that some time previous to this date "dogs," as they
were called, were known in the colony. When they were
first brought over, I have been unable to discover for, as
I have said, the records of the Virginia Company make
no mention of any importation.

The earliest settlers had but few horses and had but
little chance of huntmg, for they traveled by boat ex-
clusively, and any hunting that was done was in the woods
near the stockades. Beverley, in his "History of Vir-
ginia," written about 1 705 or I 706, mentions the fact
that the settlers kept "mungrils or swift dogs, which are
used," he says, "for pursuit of the fox, the raccoon and
opossum," and he tells how in every pack of these "mun-
grils" are three or four large dogs which protect the pack
from the attack of bears and wolves and other large wild
animals. The hunts in those days were evidently under-
taken at night and on foot, but the only account of what

Page nineteen

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actually took place is descnbed by Beverley in the^e words:
"And then the sport increases, to see the vermin encounter
those htde curs."' That the packs were very small is
sho\%-n by the French version of Beverley, which sjjeaks of
the pursuit of the fox and coon "avec trois ou quatre petits
chiens." The "mungrils," or "Httle curs," mentioned by
Beverley are e%"idently the Elnghsh beagle, while the "large
dogs " are Elnghsh stag hounds or bloodhoimds.

Just here it may be well to say that of course all Ameri-
can hounds were imported from Ejigland. In those early
days there were four classes of hounds for hunting — the
stag hound, the fox beagle, the Southern hound (called
Southern on account of its being bred in the southern part
of England), which resembles a bloodhound, and the harri-
ers, or beagle, used for hunting hares. The old-fashioned
t>-pe of Americcm hound is for the most p)art descended
from the Southern hound, or from the cross of the beagle
and the Southern hound, but from time to time English
hounds were imported, and up to the beginning of the nine-
teenth centurv" the .Amencain tvpe greatly resembled the Ejig-
lish hound of the pro\-inces — that is to say, the American
hound was practically a coimterpart of the Enghsh hound.
\%hjch was trencher-fed and which was o\sTied by the petty
squire and farmer class of Great Britain. Some Elnghsh
writers declare that the EJogUsh hound is a cross of the
bloodhound and the pointer, but it seems to be the concensus
of the best \sTiters that the fox hound of today is a mixture
of bloodhoimd, grayhound and bulldog.

An early \ irginia writer describmg a \ irgima hoimd,
says: "It resembles a cross between a male wolf and ein
ordmarv' bitch."

It is the opinion no\s- of spwrtsmen that the gray fox only
was hunted in \ irginia up to the year 1 779, but it is inter-
esting to note that Dr. Bruce, in his "Economic History of
\ irginia in the Seventeenth Centurv, ' declares that gray
foxes were abundant and that red foxes were also found.
This statement is in accord \snth Goodman's "American

Page twenty-one

TYPE OF AMERICAN HOTNU

Notice the diflferenee in size and in feet from the English.

A murning meet in front of (ieorjje <ioiild's home at I.nl<e\vond,
New Jersej. The [kkU is KiiM:lish.

Natural History," which states that the red fox is found in
the Middle and Southern States.

One of the most interesting facts, if true, that I have
discovered, is in William Byrd's story of "The Dividing
Line," printed in 1 728, which states that both foxes and
wolves abound in the colony of Virginia ; that the wolves
are harmless and run at the approach of man, but that the
foxes hide in the briers and rush out and attack the passerby.
As the Virginia foxes of that period were of the gray
genus, I cannot help thinking that Colonel Byrd has made
a mistake, and should have said that the foxes run at the
approach of man and that the wolves hide in the briers and
attack the passersby.

Possibly the most entertaining account of fox hunting
in Maryland in the early days is that in the two articles
which appeared in Outing in October and November, 1897,
written by Mr. Hanson Hiss, descendant of one of the
hard-riding men after hounds around Baltimore. It seems
more than probable that Mr. Hiss is mistaken in his asser-
tion that fox hunting was a sport in Queen Anne County,
in Maryland, as early as 1 650, for the reason that it is
hardly probable that within sixteen years after the found-
ing of the colony at St. Marys the country could have
been in condition for huntmg and that hounds should have
been impnsrted. Be that as it may, it is certainly a fact
that America owes Maryland a debt of gratitude for hav-
ing imported the red fox in 1 730. Scarf, in his "History
of Maryland," describes the Maryland fox hound as one
of great toughness and endurance, and a cross between the
English fox hound and the Irish stag hound, the result
resembling a mongrel, but better suited to the roughness
of the country than the pure bred hound. It is certain that
the lure of the red fox and the sport that he furnished
drew many Virginia sportsmen to Maryland who craved
the excitement of a straightaway chase after the red fox
rather than the dodging and twisting of the gray.

Scarf, in his second volume of the "History of Mary-

Page twenty-three

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land," describes the fox hunting life of those days in the
following quaint fashion:

"When night would overtake them, they would be sure
of a simple but hearty welcome at the nearest manor-
house, where, no matter how many guests there might be
already, there was always room for more. Stabling was
always to be had, and there would be plenty of pone for
the tired hounds. In the evening there would be an abun-
dance of old-fashioned punch for the men and dancing to
the music of Uncle Billy's ever-ready fiddle. The next
morning the bugle would sound, 'mount and away,' and
refreshed, invigorated and full of pleasant anticipations, this
gay party of happy young fox hunters would start out again
to repeat the performance. In those early days the young
folks knew no restraint and, consequently, no false modesty,
and all led a life of pure and untrammeled freedom. "

So hunting continued in Virginia and Maryland up to
the time of the war of the Revolution, there being a noble
rivalry between the two States as to which of its gentry
had the fastest horse and the swiftest hound. The story
is told that Mr. Carroll, of CarroUton, once remarked to
General "Lighthorse Harry" Lee, that fox hunting was
the grandest sport ever invented, taken part in by man
and sanctioned by an all-wise Providence. "True," re-
plied General Lee; "but it is hell if your nag is slow and
your hounds are poor," to which Mr. Carroll replied: "I
refer, sir, to fox hunting in Maryland."

In these hunts around Baltimore Colonel Washington,
Generals Braddock, Lafayette, Judge Pinckney, Chief Jus-
tice Taney, Alexander Hamilton and a host of others took
part, but it was not until the year 1818 that the Baltimore
Club was organized. Prior to that time the hounds in
Maryland and Virginia were individual packs owned by
country gentlemen who either hunted their pack for the
pleasure of their friends or joined their packs with those
of their neighbors on great occasions. It is a matter of

Page twenty-five

ON THE WAY TO A MEET

The hounds are half-bred (Anieriean-English).

considerable interest that in these days the ladies rode to
hounds much more frequently than at the present time, and
it was not an unusual thing for a dozen or more ladies in
their flowing habits to follow over fence and ditch with
the best of the hunters.

Page twenty-seven

CHAPTER V.
In Washington's Time.

Mr. George Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington,
writes in the American Turf Register of September, 1829,
a delightful account of General Washington as a fox
hunter. He says that Colonel Washington, between the
years 1 759 and 1 774, devoted all the time that he could
spare to the pleasures of the chase. The Colonel, as he
was at that time, cared little for shooting or fishing, but
was a bold and eager fox hunter, devoted to his horses
no less than to his hounds. The kennels at Mt. Vernon
were about a hundred yards from the old family vault,
set in a large enclosure in which was a spring of running
water. Colonel Washington inspected his kennels morning
and evening, just as he did his stables, and was very
careful to draft his pack so that no hounds remained who
over ran or who lagged behind. It was his delight to
entertain sportsmen from Maryland and Virginia for weeks
at a time. The "Father of His Country" is pictured as
always superbly mounted and in a sporting costume — a blue
coat, scarlet waistcoat, buckskin breeches, top boots, velvet
cap and carrying a crop with a long lash. His huntsman
was his friend and neighbor, "Billy" Lee, and many a
gray fox went down before the screaming pack. After the
Revolutionary war was over, in 1 783, General Lafayette
sent to General Washington a pack of French stag hounds
of great size, and the hounds were used by the General for
fox hunting. The pack numbered twenty-six couples and
they were so fierce that it is said no one dared go near
them without a lash. The General's favorite mount was a
blue roan horse called "Buckskin," while "Billy" Lee,
the huntsman, rode "Chinkling," a great jumper, and car-
ried a French horn. This French horn must have been
a special compliment to General Lafayette, but I have
no doubt that following the Revolutionary war every-
thing was anti-English, the feeling even being carried to

Page I \\ only-eight

such an extent, I am informed, that the rule of the road
was changed so that Americans drove to the right instead
of to the left, as they did and still do in Great Britain.

Mr. Custis writes that the foxes were all gray except
one huge black fox, which after seven or eight hard runs
was let alone for the reason that he was thought to resem-
ble, not only in color, but disposition, the fiend incarnate.

"Of the French hounds," writes Mr. Custis, "there was
one named 'Vulcan,' and I bear him in better reminiscence
from having often bestrid his ample back in the days of
juvenility."

In stating that the foxes were all gray with the excep-
tion of one black fox, Mr. Custis evidently alludes to the
period before the Revolution, for it is known that after
1 779 red foxes were plentiful in the country around
Mt. Vernon.

Despite the prejudice of the Quakers in Pennsylvania,
fox hunting seemed to have taken hold of its people around
1 750, and it is known that a red fox was killed in Perry
County, Pa., in 1 789. In 1 766 the first organized hunt
club in America was founded by the citizens of Phila-
delphia and the farmers who lived across the river in New
Jersey, the club being known as the Gloucester Fox Hunt-
ing Club, and the exact date of the organization being
December 1 3, 1 766. The preliminary meeting took place
at the old Philadelphia Coffee House, on the corner of
Front and Market Streets, and about 1 25 names were
enrolled, among them being the most prominent citizens
of Philadelphia and New Jersey. From this Gloucester
Fox Hunting Club sprung practically all the hunt clubs
around Philadelphia, notably the Rose Tree, the Lima,
the Radnor and the Brandywine, of which latter Mr.
Charles E. Mather is the present master.

Mr. Mather and Mr. A. Henry Higginson, master of
Middlesex, and Major Wadsworth, of the Genesee, have
done more for the English hound in America than any other
sportsmen, having imported and bred the very best of the

Page twenty-nine

English strain. The Radnor pack is composed of hounds
half English, half American, while most of the other packs
of Pennsylvania, although known as American packs,
enjoy a large infusion of pure English blood. Fox hunting
at the present time is probably on a better footing in Penn-
sylvania than in any other State, with the single exception
of Virginia.

The next fox hunting club to be founded was the
Brooklyn Hunt, which is known to have existed in 1781.
The forerunner of this pack was maintained and hunted
at Hempstead by John Evers, in 1 770, of whom I have
spoken before. The Revolutionary war must have put
an end to Mr. Evers' establishment, and so the New York
sportsmen rallied to the Brooklyn Hunt, of which there is
little known except that a meeting took place on
November 19, 1781, at "The Narrows" (now Fort Ham-
ilton), and that a guinea was offered for a good, strong
bagged fox.

Fox hunting around New York was not heard of again
until after the Civil war, when in 1874 Frederick Skinner
and Joseph Donohue maintained a pack of fox hounds at
Hackensack, in Jersey. Messrs. Skinner and Donohue
belonged to the old-fashioned, unfashionable type of fox
hunters who laid on their hounds, then climbed into a
buggy and followed as best they could, knowing the coun-
try and pretty generally getting in at the death. The
fame of the Hackensack pack, however, spread abroad
and soon sportsmen from New York began to attend the
meets. Some of these city people had hunted in England,
and soon the demand was made that a club should be
organized and a pack purchased, and so in 1877 Mr.
Gray Griswold went abroad and purchased an Irish pack
of harriers. On his return the pack was housed at
Meadowbrook, and the club was christened the Queen
County Hounds. Even as late as this period there was
some opposition among the Quaker farmers to hunting, but
the spirit soon disappeared and from the Queen County

Page thirty

beginning sprung the Meadowbrook Hunt, the Monmouth
Hunt, the Rockaway Hunt and half a dozen others.

New York, however, cannot be passed by without
speaking especially of the Genesee Valley Hunt, of which
Major W. Austin Wadsworth is master. Major Wads-
worth's father. General Wadsworth, learned from the Fitz-
hughs of Virginia the art of fox hunting and passed it on
to his son, who in 1876 became master of the Genesee
Valley Hunt. Major Wadsworth has hunted hounds,
therefore, for nearly forty years, and during that time has
built up his pack by importation and drafts from The
Meath in 1880, from Lord Fitzhardinge in 1884, Mr.
Fernies in 1887 and The Holderness in 1894.

Page thirty-one

LARKING

When a modern fox hunter c'annot get enoiiK^h exercise in riding

after hounds he Jumps fen<'es during "<'lie<-ks," mueli

to tlie disgust of tlie ancient fraternity.

CHAPTER VI.

A^en^ Hunts Organized in the Northern States.

In Massachusetts the sport of fox hunting was unknown
until 1866, when Mr. E. F. Bowditch, of Millwood,
known in Massachusetts as "The Father of Fox Hunting,"
organized a pack. His example was followed by the
Myopia Hunt in 1879, the Norfolk Hunt in 1895 and
by the Middlesex Hunt in 1897. Middlesex is probably
as well known as any hunt in America on account of the
vast amount of time, trouble and money that the master,
Mr. Higginson, has expended in building up an English
pack of the very first class.

Before returning to the various packs in Virginia and
Maryland of the second and third periods, I will briefly
tell of the packs that are now maintained in other localities,
only mentioning those which are regularly organized and
which come directly or indirectly under the direction of the
National Hunt and Steeplechase Association.

In the State of Illinois there are two hunts — the
Owentsia, organized in 1901, and the Midlothia, organized
in 1903. Both of these packs, I am informed, furnish
excellent sport and are well maintained.

In Missouri there is the Missouri Hunt and Polo Club
of Kansas City, organized in 1902. This club has one
of the most complete kennels in America.

In New Hampshire but one club is maintained — the
Portsmouth Hunt, founded in 1885 by Dr. A. C. Hef-
finger, a Virginian, who returned to fox hunting after hav-
ing served in the Navy.

Across the line in Vermont is the Shelbourne Hunt, on
the borders of Lake Champlain. Mr. J. Watson Webb
is master and the kennels contain fifteen couples of English
hounds.

Ohio is represented by the Chagrin Valley Hunt, of
which Mr. W. T. White is master.

In Kentucky, which boasts any number of private packs.

Paga thirty-thiee

the recognized hunt is the Iroquois Club, of which General
Roger D. Wilhams is master. The club rides behind
American hounds exclusively and, indeed, among the
many crack packs of Kentucky there will be found only
the American hound, although there are but few estab-
lishments which have not introduced in recent years a strain
of the pure bred English fox hound.

Out on the Pacific slope, Oregon was the first State
to introduce fox hunting, the pack being known as the
Portland Hunt, of which Mr. McGrath is master, the
hounds being American. This club was founded in 1901.
However, it was not many years before Washington State
became interested in the sport, and the Seattle Hunt Club
was founded in 1910. This organization has been recog-
nized by the National Hunt and Steeplechase Association
during the present year, 1911.

In Georgia, while there are many private packs, there
are but two recognized packs — the Chatham Hunt, of
Savannah, of which Mr. John K. Culver is M. F. H., and
the Eleventh Cavalry Hunt, of Fort Oglethorpe, the only
hunt club maintained by the United States Army. This
club has as its master, huntsmen and whip officers of the
cavalry regiment stationed at Fort Oglethorpe. The hounds
present an excellent appearance and the sport has found
great favor among the horsemen around Atlanta.

In South Carolina Mr. Hitchcock's hounds, a private
pack at Aiken, represent the State. Mr. Hitchcock, who
is one of the best known sportsmen in America, and who
has played a most important part in fox hunting, both in
England and in Long Island, maintains an American pack.
The country around Aiken is flat and sandy and there
are few fences, but excellent sport is furnished for the
most part to northern visitors who spend the winter at
Aiken. In this connection I might as well say that there
are but two recognized private packs in America — the
one that I have just mentioned, known as Mr. Hitchcock's
hounds, and a pack known as Mr. Maddox's hounds,

Pas'o t hilly- lour

belonging to Mr. James K. Maddox, of Warrenton, Va.,
who IS not only a keen follower behind hounds but is one
of the best gentleman riders between the flags in America.

In North Carolina there are several private packs dating
back as far as the old Raleigh Hunt Club of I 828. This
club, which was really no club at all, but a party of gen-
tlemen who hunted together, has long since passed out of
existence. Under the date of December I 3, 1 829, one
of the members of the club gives a description of a chase
that results in the death of the fox at a Mr. Alfred Lane's.
He tells that the hunt was in honor of a Maryland gentle-
man, Mr. D. Barnum, who was in at the death, and
names among those present the Messrs Haywood, General
Beverley Daniel and Charles Marley, afterwards governor
of the State. He adds these words, showing that the red
fox up to 1829 had not reached North Carolina: "We
have no reds among us, all ours being grays." The Turf
Register of 1 830, however, records the fact that Raleigh
Club declined a challenge from the Smithfield Club (N.
C), the challenge being for ten "dogs" a side, two morn-
ings, and the points of the match to be "striking, trailing,
fleetness and closeness."

At present there is a pack maintained at Pinehurst, a
summer resort in North Carolina, and the sport very much
resembles that given by Mr. Hitchcock's hounds at Aiken.

Page thirty-five

CHAPTER VII.
In Virginia and Mar])land.

Coming now to Maryland, which divides with Virginia
the honor of being the birthplace of fox hunting in America,
the Baltimore Hunt Club demands the highest considera-
tion for the reason that for many years this organization
furnished the very best sport in America. There were
more red foxes in this section than in any other and the
sportsmen were not only keen but hospitable, inviting many
prominent Virginians and other hunters to take part in the
chase. The club seems to have been keenly alive to the
importance of keeping the pack up to a high standard, for
there are many records of hounds imported from England.
As late as I 830 the newspapers announce that among the
important arrivals at Baltimore is "one fox hound bitch,
the leader of Lord Doneghal's pack, with five pups by his
crack dog; the hound and the pups for the Baltimore Hunt
and all sent in by Mr. Adair."

From Baltimore to Washington the charm of fox
hunting spread, and a pack was purchased by the residents
of that city some time about 1825. It is said that the
hounds were imported from England by the British Am-
bassador but they were not long kept together, the sport
being furnished by gentlemen owning private packs in
Maryland and Virginia.

According to the American Turf Register of the years
1 829 and 1 830, the red foxes about this time did not
furnish as excellent sport as they had done a score of
years previous, and many sportsmen wrote to the editor.
Colonel Skinner, declaring that the red fox was not as
game an animal as it had been. It is hardly fair to
believe this statement of the case, but I think that the
real reason of red foxes being killed in shorter time and in
less distance than during General Washington's hunting
days was because hounds had been vastly improved and
were better able to run into their foxes than were the

Page thiity-six

mongrels of which many of the early packs were composed.
In addition to this the country was becoming yearly more
open, giving the hounds an advantage which they did not
previously possess.

Many volumes could be written about the fox hunts
that took place in Maryland and Virginia up to the time
of the Civil war; of a great circle of hunts in which the
packs of Captain Turret, General Gibson, Mr. Chichester
and Mr. Darnes were joined, and such as the hunt which
took place on New Year's Day, 1 830, when the citizens
of Jefferson, Berkeley and Loudoun Counties, of Virginia,
and Washington County, of Maryland, met, one thousand
strong, at Whitings Neck and chased a red fox with a
pack of 150 fox hounds. The last sentence of the invita-
tion to this hunt reads as follows: "No cur dogs permitted
to enter the circle."

The story of one of these fox hunts greatly resembles
another, and the hunts which took place around Wash-
ington and Baltimore were only examples of those which
occurred in many parts of both States. Colonel Thomas
H. Carter and his neighbors maintained an excellent pack
at "Pampetike," in King William County, and up to the
day of his death the Colonel delighted to tell of the many
chases after a giant fox, named for the rebel, Nat Turner,
whose body was ringed with white and who was never
captured. In Albemarle County, at "Castle Hill," hounds
had been kept since 1 742, when Dr. Thomas Walker im-
ported the first lot from England. The gentry of both
States were hunting mad, and the presence of a pack of
hounds was the signal for all kinds of merriment. Dr.
Thomas Nelson Page, in one of his sketches of Virginia
life, has pictured the scene of a fox hunt in Virginia, which
describes the sport of the day in a way that brings it to
one's very eyes. He writes:

"The chief sport, however, was fox hunting. It was,
in season, almost universal. Who that lived in that time
does not remember the fox hunts — the eager chase after

Page thirty-seven

'grays' or 'old reds!' The grays furnished more fun, the
reds more excitement. The grays did not run so far, but
usually kept near home, going in a circuit of six or eight
miles. 'An old red,' generally so called irrespective of
age, as a tribute to his prowess, might lead the dogs all
day, and end by losing them as evening fell, after taking
them a dead stretch for thirty miles. The capture of a
gray was what men boasted of ; a chase after 'an old red'
was what they 'yarned' about. Some old reds became
historical characters, and were as much discussed in the
counties they inhabited as the leaders of the bar or the
crack speakers of the circuit. The wiles and guiles of
each veteran were the pride of his neighbors and hunters.
Many of them had names. Gentlemen discussed them at
their club dinners ; lawyers told stories about them in the
'lawyers' rooms' at the courthouses; young men, while they
waited for the preacher to get well into the service before
going into church, bragged about them in the churchyards
on Sundays. There was one such that I remember. He
was known as 'Nat Turner,' after the notorious leader of
'Nat Turner's Rebellion,' who remained in hiding foi
weeks after all his followers were taken.

"Great frolic these hunts were; for there were the pret-
tiest girls in the world in the country houses round about,
and each young fellow was sure to have in his heart some
brown or blue-eyed maiden to whom he had promised the
brush, and to whom, with feigned indifference but with
mantling cheek and beating heart, he would carry it if, as
he counted on doing, he should win it. Sometimes the girls
came over themselves and rode, or more likely were already
there visiting, and the beaux simply followed them by a
law as immutable as that by which the result follows the
premises in a mathematical proposition.

"Even the boys had their lady loves, and rode for them
on colts or mules; not the small girls of their own age
(no 'little girls' for them!). Their sweethearts were
grown young ladies, with smiling eyes and silken hair and

Page thiily-eiglit

graceful mien, whom their grown cousins courted, and whom
they with their boys' hearts worshipped. Often a half-
dozen were in love with one — always the prettiest one —
and, with the generous spirit of boys in whom the selfish
instinct has not yet wakened, agreed among themselves
that they should all ride for her, and that whichever got
the brush should present it on behalf of all.

"What a gallant sight it was! The appearance on
the far hill in the evening with their packs surrounding
them! Who does not recall the excitement of the house;
the arrival in the yard, with horns blowing, hounds bray-
ing, horses prancing and girls laughing; the picture of the
young ladies on the front portico with their arms around
each other's dainty waists — the slender, pretty figures, the
bright faces, the sparkling eyes, the gay laughter and
musical voices, as with coquettish merriment they chal-
lenged the riders, demandmg to blow the horns themselves
or to ride some specially handsome horse next morning!
The way, the challenge being accepted, they trip down
the steps, some with little screams shrinking from the
bounding dogs ; one or two with stouter hearts, fixed upon
higher game, bravely ignoring them and leaving their man-
agement to their masters, who at their approach sprang to
the ground to meet them, hat in hand and the tell-tale
blood mounting to their sunburned faces, with the beauty
and pride of youth!"

The Civil war put an end to all huntmg for four years,
and at the end of this bloody period the people of Virginia
and of Maryland were so poverty-stricken that they were
unable to indulge in the sport as they had before the days
of '61. It is true that remnants of the packs still re-
mained, but the sport for several years lapsed to the style
of colonial days. Hunting was indulged in, but on a
very small scale, and many sportsmen were forced to join
their one or two couples of hounds to form a pack. This
condition of affairs brought about the club system of fox
hunting.

Page thirtv-niiie

Prior to the war there had been no organized clubs in
Virginia, and the fact is easily accounted for when one
remembers that each country house in the State was prac-
tically a club house open to the friends of its owner.
Every country gentleman who mamtained a pack of hounds
welcomed any neighbor, and these m turn would pass on
and hunt with some other neighbor's pack, so that until
the North and South were at odds, a Virginia or Maryland
sportsman could secure a run every day of the week.
This picture of hospitality disappeared with Lee's sur-
render at Appomattox and gradually a new order of things
prevailed in fox hunting. Clubs began to be formed so
that many sportsmen could share the expense of maintain-
ing the pack, and in this way the hunt organizations of
Maryland and Virginia were formed. In Virginia this
mode of hunting was further promoted by the advent of a
number of Englishmen, many of whom were keen sportsmen.

In Maryland the Elkridge came into existence in 1 878,
the Green Spring Valley in 1892, the Patapsco in 1898,
the Dunblam, just out of Washmgton, in 1895, and t^he
Chevy Chase, supported by Washington patronage, in
1 892. One of the moving spirits in Maryland hunting of
the present day is Mr. Redmond C. Stewart, a sportsman
who has striven long and earnestly to build up fox hunting
m America. As master of the Green Sprmg Valley he
has some thirty-seven-and-a-half couple of hounds m his
kennels, for the most part American, but some containing
a strain of pure bred English.

Over near Washington, the Dunblain Hunt has ceased
to exist, its successor being the Chevy Chase. A queer
incident in connection with the Dunblain Hunt was that its
huntsman was a Frenchman, the Comte de Jamtelle. It
is said that despite his Parisian birth, this gentleman fur-
nished excellent sport to the Washington riders. The
pioneer pack, however, at the National Capital after the
Civil war, was kept by a Mr. Haskins, a grocer, in 1870,
who had the heart of a true follower of hounds.

Page forty

In Virginia, without reckoning the half hundred private
packs that are still in existence all over the State, there
are at present nineteen packs recognized by the National
Hunt and Steeplechase Association, and when one remem-
bers that there are but fifty-seven recognized packs in the
whole United States, the inference follows that fox hunting
is more firmly established in Virginia than in any other
section of the country. A hst of the Virginia hunts com-
prises the Albemarle, the Blue Ridge, the Cassanova Hunt,
the Castle Hill, the Cobbler, the Deep Run, the Gaston,
the Keswick, the Loudoun, the Lynchburg, the Middleburg,
Mr. Maddox, the Oak Ridge, the Orange County, the
Piedmont, the Remlik, the Riverside, the Tomahawk, and
the Warrenton.

Of these clubs the Castle Hill, Deep Run and Gaston
use English packs, the other clubs riding behind so-called
American packs, although almost in every case the hounds
are either half-breed — that is to say, American-English —
or possess a large infusion of English blood. The principal
hunting center in Maryland is around Baltimore and out-
side of Washington, while in Virginia the best hunting is
found around Gordonsville, Charlottesville, Leesburg and
Warrenton.

Among the Virginia fox hunters, especially those of the
old school, the organized clubs are not held in high esteem.
The old time sportsman has a great contempt for a pink
coat and the mere mention of a "drag," which, by the way,
means "scent," is like a red rag to a bull, and so many
of them form coteries of their own, making pilgrimages to
the haunts of the red fox and hunting in the good old-
fashioned way that prevailed before the time of the Civil
war. Among the best known of these old fox hunters
are Mr. Sneed, of North Carolina, and Judge Aiken, of
Danville, Va., who yearly camp together on Roanoke River
and make the red foxes run for their lives. In a recent letter
Judge Aiken, speaking of fox hunters, describes the chivalry
of the clan. He says:

Page forty-one

"I have known many fox hunters and have run many
packs. The hound is my favorite animal, and there is a
bond of unison between all fox hunters and me. They
are pleasant companions and manly men as a general thing.
Captain W. P. Graves was the best manager of hounds in
the field I ever hunted with, and he knew more about
hounds. He was as refined and gentle as a knight, and 1
never heard him run down another man's dog, and when
others beat his he always praised them and said he wouldn't
tell a lie on a dog. He had a charming voice, and when
a hard run pack heard it they took fresh life."

It is the fashion to declare that nothing is as good now
as it was in by-gone days, but this fashion smacks of truth
regarding fox hunting. I remember very distinctly hunt-
ing in the Isle of Wight County on February 6, 1905,
with Mr. Julius Octavius Thomas, who on that day cele-
brated his seventy-first birthday, and also celebrated on the
same date the fiftieth anniversary of his mastership of
hounds. For a half century he had hunted regularly every
season in Four Square, his ancestral home, except during
the four years of the war, and the hounds behind which
we rode in 1 905 were the descendants of the pack which
the old gentleman hunted in 1855. I quote from The Times
Dispatch a brief description of the day's hunt which re-
sulted in the deatti of a game red fox.

"A half century of fox hunting by the same master of
hounds, with a pack made up of the descendants of the
original pack, and with grandsons ridmg in the place of
their grandfathers of fifty years before, marked an occasion
without parallel in the annals of sport in this country. The
very hunting horns (old cow horns) belonged to days of
long ago, having been the property of those sportsmen, long
since dead, who rode and cheered the hounds in the days
when the master of Four Square was but a boy and the
last century was in its middle age. "

Another grand old sportsman was Colonel Richard
Hunter Dulany, of Welbourne in Loudoun County, who

I'ago Idrty-lwi)

died in 1 906, having hunted practically all of the eighty-
live years of his life. Colonel Dulany was an ardent
sportsman of the very best and highest type. He main-
tained the Piedmont pack at his own expense, and he never
saw the fence so high nor the brook so broad that he would
not have a try at it. It was Colonel Dulany who intro-
duced the Horse Show into America before 1 850, and his
nephew, Rozier Dulany, of Washington, has a cup won by
the Colonel at the Upperville Colt Show in 1850. I recall
at the American-English Hound Trials in Piedmont Valley
in 1905, when Mr. Harry W. Smith matched his Grafton
pack of American hounds against Mr. A. H. Higginson's
Middlesex pack of English hounds for $1,000 a side and
a cup, that Colonel Dulany cut his wire fences seven
miles down the Valley in order that the sportsmen might not
be impeded. This hound match possibly called together
the most representative gathering of fox hunters of recent
times, for at many of the meets there were from seventy-five
to eighty-five persons all superbly mounted and nearly all
sporting pink, while representatives of twenty-six hunts wit-
nessed the match, won by Mr. Smith's pack, although Mr.
Higginson's hounds furnished such excellent sport that
many clubs thereafter adopted the English hound.

Over the very country where this match took place
occurred some thirty years ago a sporting event which
attracted wide attention. Mr. Hal Dulany, son of Colonel
Dulany, on his return from England, where he had been
hunting, declared that he could follow the Piedmont pack
over the stone walls of Loudoun County and could live with
the hounds to the end. A wager was made and a date
was set. Mr. Dulany secured a very fast and seasoned
thoroughbred, placed him in a trainer's hands, who not
only conditioned him but schooled him perfectly over the
jumps. The hunter being in perfect condition, Mr. Du-
lany said that he was ready, and the match was on. It
is said that for fifteen long minutes Mr. Dulany lived with
the hounds, but after that time they disappeared into thin

Page forty-three

a

air, and the thoroughbred was "all in." Since this occa-
sion there has been no sportsman bold enough to declare
that he can live with American hounds over the Piedmont
country. I recall an incident in fox hunting which I believe
has never been equalled in any country. During a fox hunt
in Gloucester County, Va., the huntsman had occasion to
cross York River, which is three-quarters of a mile wide.
There being no ferry, he leaped his horse into an ordinary
row boat, from three feet of water, had his hounds scramble
into the boat, and made the trip across in safety.

Pago forty-five

CHAPTER VIII.

Hunting Notes.

It may not be amiss before ending this article to say a

word about the cost of maintaining packs of hounds. In

early days it wa« not an extravagance to keep a pack, and

even now small packs may be maintained for a reasonable
amount. But the great and fashionable packs cost the

masters a small fortune every season. In 1 770 Mr. John
Evers, as I have already stated, imported a pack together
with horses and hunt servants, from England, and to this
pack Colonel Washington was a subscriber. The mere
mention of this importation strikes terror to the hearts of
those who are not wealthy, but the fact is that the main-
tenance of hounds in that day was of no very great mo-
ment, and I doubt if Mr. Evers' pack cost him as much
as $3,000 a year. The famous Belvoir pack, of England,
which has been for generations owned by the Dukes of
Rutland, cost for the season of 1786 only £775 10s, or
less than $4,000, and in the establishment were eleven
horses, three hunt servants and a dog feeder. The hunts-
man received as his salary £49 14s, or less than $250 a
year, although he was the crack of all England. In order
to show, however, how the keep of hounds has increased,
it is only necessary to mention that the Quorn pack cost
in 1901 £6,255, and that the probable cost of the Belvoir
or Quorn at the present time exceed £8,000 or $40,000.
The question of the origin of the scarlet or pink coat
has been so often asked that I have endeavored to learn
how it was introduced as the emblem of fox hunting. The
origin, however, is not known, and this despite a search of
all the sporting historians. There is a legend to the effect
that King Henry the Second ordered that those who rode
to the chase should wear a pink coat and that they should
be taxed accordingly, but this story has been pronounced
absurd. It is known, however, that the pink dinner coat
was introduced by the Meltonian dandies of the English

Page forty-six

shires who dishked the custom of dining after a hard run
in soiled pink riding coats, and who changed to a pink
evening coat before sitting down to dinner.

Of course there are many hunts both in America and in
England that sport some color other than pink as a livery.
This custom springs from the habit of using the family
color for the hunt.

The question of the introduction of top boots is also of
some interest, and it seems to be the opinion of sporting
writers that in the early days the riders wore high boots
pulled over the knees, and gradually the custom came about
to turn down the boot inside out around the calf of the leg,
this inside, sometimes tan, sometimes pink and sometimes
green, brought about the various styles of tops for hunting
boots.

I have used freely in this article the Turf Register, the
works of Dr. Philip Alexander Bruce, Dr. Thomas Nelson
Page, Beverley's "History of Virginia," Scarf's "History
of Maryland, " A. J. Bradley's "Sketches from Old Vir-
ginia," "The Hunts of the United States and Canada,"
by A. Henry Higginson and Julian Ingersoll Chamberlin,
The Edinburgh Revieiv, "Hunting," by the Duke of
Beaufort; "Hunting," by J. O. Pagett; "Kings of the
Hunting Field," by Thormanby ; "The Quorn Hunt and
Its Master," by W. C. A. Blew; "The Records of the
Virginia Colonies," "The Dividing Line," by William
Byrd; "Four Square and Fox Hunting," by R. S. Thomas;
outing magazines, and numerous books from the library of
Colonel W. Gordon McCabe.

Page forty-seven

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